science-and-change

Leaders need to sacrifice "power-over" to get "power-to".

The most damaging cognitive bias is overconfidence (illusory superiority), making leaders use their __ut_ when they should be more rational.

Those who ignore the destructive potential of new technologies can do so only because they ignore history . Pogroms are as old as Christendom , but without railways, the telegraph and poison gas there could have been no Holocaust. (..) Scientific fundamentalism claim that science is the disinterested pursuit of the truth. But to represent science in this way is to disregard the human needs science serves. Among us science serves two needs: for hope and censorship. Today only science supports the myth of progress. If people cling to the hope of progress, it is not so much from genuine belief as from fear of what may come if they give it up.

Science has the capacity to uplift us to heights of undreamed of sophistication and quality of life or to drag us down into an abyss, from which we may never return. I do not believe science and/or technology are bad. However, I am very concerned with the beliefs the majority of scientists have about the world, which is its overriding view of reality_ the mainstream scientific worldview. I believe it is the greatest weakness of science and so the greatest weakness of modern society and poses a serious risk, as we accelerate toward the biggest upheaval in human history, within the context of the enormity of global issues we face.

Mindfulness requires being a beginner. Setting absurdly high-standards, and being unwilling to be a novice, are the joint enemies of personal progress and change. Nobody benchpresses 100 kilos the first time they enter a gym.

Mindfulness promises a great number of desirable benefits, and is based on much more solid research than many competing ideas on how to change people.

I find it very sad that by the time corporate science realizes the value of nature, that it may be too late

Art imitates life, but science fiction informs us about what form it will take.

Science Fiction is a safe, fertile arena in which to rehearse the potential scientific facts of tomorrow